Rep. Albio Sires may be the overwhelming favorite to win Tuesday's primary in the Eighth Congressional District, but his opponent, Jersey City resident Michael J. Shurin, has at least one attention-grabbing campaign issue: The legalization of marijuana.

Shurin, who says he left his job as a computer developer in September to focus on his Quixotic campaign, also wants to call off the War on Drugs.

"My number one issue is the War on Drugs and the minimum of 50,000 dead bodies across the (Mexican) border," said Shurin, 25, arguing the best way to end gang violence and put a crimp in crime is to make pot legal and stop asking people to fight a fruitless war.

"I am an underdog, I'm not in self-denial," said Shurin, adding he's running to give "voice to issues that are under-represented."

Raised in Glen Ridge, Shurin is single and said he's supporting himself with money he saved over the past five years in anticipation of this race.

However, Sires, 61, endorsed by U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and all the Democratic Party county chairs in Hudson, Bergen, Essex and Union counties, is clearly in the driver's seat.

He is seeking his fourth term in Congress after serving three terms representing the 13th Congressional District, which was redistricted.

The former West New York mayor served 12 years in the state Assembly, four of those years as speaker.

Sires is "honored to have the tremendous support" not only of Democrats, but people with various political views, said his spokeswoman Erica Daughtrey.

Filings with the Federal Election Commission show Sires has raised about $430,000 for his campaign, with about $227,796 remaining in his war chest. Shurin said he's already spent the $22,000 he loaned his campaign.

And he doesn't plan to raise any more money since he doesn't want any "strings attached" to corporations and labor unions.

Sires continues to push for funding to raise the roadbed of the Bayonne Bridge, a critical component of keeping the local ports humming, Daughtrey said.

In addition, he intends to keep fighting to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and other safety-net institutions, she added.

The winner of the Democratic contest will square off against Republican Maria Pineiro Karczewski, a former Bayonne councilwoman, in the general election in November. She's running unopposed in the Republican primary.